Letter-box



(No Model.)

C.. SHUMAN.

LETTER BOX.

No. 476,692. Patented June '7, 1892.

fjO

UNITED STATES PATENT AOEETCE.

CHARLES SHUMAN, OF S'I. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

L ETT E. R B O X SPECIFICATION forming part 0f Letters Patent No.476,692, dated ,Tune 7, 1892.

Application tiled January 4, 1892, Serial No, 4l6,928. (No model.)

To all whom it r11/ay concern.-

Beit known that I, CHARLES SHUMAN, of the city of St. Louis and State ofMissouri, have invented certain new and useful Im- 5 provements in Houseand Street Letter-Boxes,

`of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

My invention relates to house and street letter-boxes; and it consistsin the novel arrangement and combination of parts, as will be more fullyhereinafter described, and des ignated in the claims. p

In the' drawings, Figure l is a perspective 4view of my improvedletter-box, showing the door thereof partially open. Fig. 2 is avertical longitudinal section of the box with the door closed. Fig. 3 isa perspective view of an inverted-V-shaped plate, which l employ incarrying out my invention; and Fig. e is a perspective view of a devicemade use of in securing the box to a house or other support.

The object of my invention is to provide a letter-box for receivingdeposited mail without bending such mail, which shall be simple inconstruction, comparatively inexpensive, and,further, to provide a boxwhich shall prevent the mail from being surreptitiously withdrawn fromthe same.

Referring to the drawings, l represents a box, which is elongated inshape, having sides 2 and back 3, the same being united in any suitablemechanical manner, premising,how ever, that the box so constructed ispreferably provided with a top portion 4, which is formed by theremaining parts of the box.

5 indicates an inclined passage, which is formed by the inclined portionG of the front plate 7 of the box and the additional inclined plate 8,secured between the sides of the box beneath said portion 6 andextending from the front of said box rearward and upward. The mail to bedeposited is first inserted through this passage 5 in the mannerhereinafter further explained. The said passage is normally open at itsouter end.

9 indicates an upper vertical receivingchamber, which is constructedsufciently narrow to hold the mail-matter in an upright positiontherein. The inner opening of the passage 5 communicates with the lowerend of the receiving-chamber @,and is located a distance beneath theupper end of said chamber greater than the length of an ordinarymailpackage in order to permit all packages-such as letters,postal-cards, or wrapped newspapers-to be inserted through said openingbodily within said chamber and be held there in in an upright positionwithout being bent or doubled, and from which position the mail willfall by its own gravity in a downward direction to the point of deposit,which will now be described. The body of the box below thereceiving-chamber 9 is in the form of an enlarged chamber, locatedbeneath said opening and in communication with said receiving-chamber byway of a vertical connecting-passage, which passage is normally closedby means now to be described.

l0 represents an inverted-V-shaped plate having two arms, the inner ofwhich is provided with terminal serrations 1l, and the opposite outerarm of said plate is provided with a rounded terminal end, in order togive said end a finished appearance.

l2 indicates the pivots or journals, by means of which the V-shapedplate is secured in position. These pivots may be formed in dilferentways, although I prefer the manner which I here show, with the saidpivots projecting in alignment a distance beyond the opposite edges ofsaid plate. The pivots l2 project linto suitable openings or bearingsformed in the side walls of the box and pivotallyormovably secure theV-shaped plate in position closely adjacent the upper terminal of theplate 8, so that the inner arm of said plates will be located within thebox and normally project into the passage which connects thereceivingchamber and the larger chamber beneath it, and so that theouter arm will project into the passage 5 and normally rest upon theplate 8, and not obstruct the opening to said receiving-chamber.

The plate lO, as above constructed, normally lies in the position shownin Fig. 2 of the drawings, namely, with the outer arm resting upon theexterior surface of the plate 8, and the inner arm projecting downwardand rearwardly across the passage in the rear of said plate S. Althoughthe inner end of the inner arm of plate lO is not shown in actualcontact with the rear wall of the box, yet its function of preventingthe su-rreptitious withdrawal of mail-matter will not thereby beinterfered with, for the reason that the space between said end and saidwall is comparatively narnow and will not permit the passage of thefingers or hand of a pui-loin er downward without depressing said innerarm and correspondingly elevating the outer arm of said plate.

To the lower end of the larger chamber is hinged an angularly-shapedreceptacle or box; or it may be an ordinary door by means of which maildeposited within the box may be removed therefrom. To the plate 8 issecured a hasp 13, and to the front of the door, near its upper end, issecured a staple 14, which staple is engaged by the haspin the ordinarymanner when said door is in a closed position. To lock the box, anordinary padlock is employed. In order to temporarily lock the box, Iemploy a hook 15, which is movably secured to the hasp 13, and adaptedto engage the staple 14.

1G indicates a shed which is secured to the inner surface of the rearwall 3 of the box near the lower end of same, by means of whichmail-matter gravitating downward from the receivin g-chamber will beprevented from contacting with and resting upon the rear edge of thehinged box.

In order to secure the box 1 to the house or other support, and,further, to prevent said box from being removed from said supportwithout opening the box, I employ the means which I shall now describe.

17 indicates a depression formed in the back 3 of the box adjacent tothe upper end of same, and a downwardly-extending hook 19 has its Iupperend secured to said box, and the hook is located within said depressionand adapted to engagea fastening device and secure the upper end of thehook in position. One manner of securing this hook in position is tolocate a horizontal bai-18 across the back of the box in said depressionand secure same in place in any mechanical manner and secure the upperend of the down\vardlypro jecting hook 19 to said bar 1S, so that therear surface of said hook will lie flush with the remaining portion ofthe back 3.

2O indicates a 'stirrup or strap, preferably made of metal, bent asshown in Fig. 4, with its ends provided with openings 21, through whichopenings screws or other like devices may be inserted for securing saidplate or strap to the house orsupport. The plate 20, after being securedto the house, is in position to receive the hook 19, as illustrated,which will rigidly hold the upper end ot the box 1 firmly in position,and at the same time the screws used to secure said strap to the housewill be covered and protected by the back of the box, thereby preventingsaid strap from being removed by unauthorized persons. After the box hasbeen secured to the house and supported as above described,

screws 22 are passed through suitable open-` ings formed in the lowerend of the back 3 of the box and made to engage the house, as shown.Thus, it will be seen,it is impossible to detach the box from the houseor other support without opening the door in the usual manner. TheV-shaped plate 10 is preferably mounted, as before described, in suchamanner that one of its arms will substantially balance the other, sothat but very little weight will be required to move said plate upon itsbearings; but the outer arm is preferably constructed to preponderate inweight, so as to hold both arms in the position hereinbefore described,and there shown in Fig. 2.

The operation is as follows: Postal-cards and light letter packages arefirst inserted u pwardly through the passage 5, which, as before stated,is normally open into the receivingchamber 9 without being turned endfor end or bent or doubled. The operator then releases such mail-matterand it gravitates in an upright position downward. If the mail-matterstrikes the innerarm of the V-shaped plate, it will be thereby guidedtoward the rear, where there is a very narrow passage between the rearwall 3 and the inner end of the inner arm, and if the mail-matter soinserted be a postalcard or a very thin letter, it will pass downwardpast the said end of said arm into the larger chamber below. If themail-matter have sufficient weight, the inner arm of the plate 10 willbe thereby depressed until the passage between the rear wall 3 and saidarm is made sufficiently large to permit said mailmatter to fall intothe lowerreceptacle orchamber. It the mail-matter be a comparativelylarge package-such as a very large newspaper in a wrapper-it will havesu flicient weight to depress the inner arm of the plate lO until itoccupies the position indicated by dotted lines and until the outer armoccupies a corresponding .position, also indicated by dotted lines. Verythin matter-such as postalcards-may pass from the receiving-chamber intothe larger chamber without moving the plate 10 5 but a very largepackage will, as before stated, have the effect of moving said plateinto the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. Should an attempt bemade byan unauthorized person to withdraw any mail that has beendeposited in the box, the scrrated portion of the plate 10 willnecessarily be moved downward, and consequently the ou ter arm of saidplate will be correspondingly elevated, and will close or rather tend toclose the opening or passage 5, formed in the box, and clamp the hand ofthe purloiner or the instrument used by him against the upper wall ofthe passage and prevent its being inserted sufliciently far to reach themail in the lower chamber. As it will be seen, it is impossible towithdraw any of the deposited mail by the hand inserted surreptitiously.

In some instances purloiners have been known to withdraw mail depositedin letter- IOO IIO

boxes by the use of a string having a suitable contrvance attached toit; but should such contrivance be used to rob my improved box theserrated end of the arms above described would prevent such theftbecause the cord or string would pass into the spaces between the teethand the letter or package on being elevated would strike said teeth andcould not be withdrawn. Thus it will further be seen from the foregoingdescription that a boX constructed in accordance with my descriptionwill receive letters, postal-cards, newspapers, and packages, and afterthe same have been deposited it is impossible to withdraw them, exceptby opening the door of the box in the manner above described.

The receiving-chamber is purposely -constructed so narrow from front torear that it will always hold the mail-matter in an upright positionduring operation of the box. The advantage of this construction is thatcomparatively long packages may be inserted bodily within said extensionwithout being bent or broken. Such packages may also be removed from thebox in the same good condition.

From the foregoing it will be observed that l have provided an improvedhouse or street letter-box having at its upper end a receiving chamberconstructed so narrow as to hold papers and packages in an uprightposition without bending or doubling them, a larger chamber locatedbelow said receiving-chamber and in communication therewith by way of avertical passage, an opening for insertion of mail located intermediateof said receiving-chamber and said larger chamber, at a suihcientdistance beneath the upper end of the receiving-chamber to permit papersand packages to be inserted within said chamber without bending, andsaid opening located a snncient distance above the bottom of said largerchainbcr to permit such papers and packages to drop below the level ofsaid opening.

l. An improved letter-box having an upper vertical receiving-chamberconstructed narrow to hold the Inail-matter in an upright positiontherein, an opening for insertion of mailmattcr, located in the wall ofthe box a distance beneath the upper end of said chamber greater thanthe length of an ordinary mailpackage to permit all packages to beinserted through said opening bodily within said chamber,and alargerchamber located beneath said opening and in communication with saidreceiving-chamber by way of a vertical passage, substantially as setforth.

2. An improved house or street letter-box having an upper verticalreceiving-chamber constructed narrow to hold the mail-matter in anupright position thereima larger chainber located beneath and incommunication with the receiving-chamber by way of a vertical passage,and an upwardly-inclined passage which opens into saidreceiving-chamber,

the opening of the inner end of said passage located beneath the upperend of the receivingchamber a distance greater than the length of anordinary mail-package and at a distance above said larger chambergreater than the length of an ordinary mail-package, in combination witha suitable door for removal of mail from the larger chamber,substantially as set forth.

3. An improved house or street letter-box constructed at its lower endwith a receptacle for deposited mail, a vertical receiving-chamber ofsmaller transverse sectional area than said receptacle and incommunication therewith by way of a passage, said verticalreceiving-chamber arranged narrow to receive and hold papers andpackages in an upright position, an opening for insertion of mail,located in one wall of the box intermediate of said verticalreceiving-chamber and said receptacle at a distance beneath the upperend of the receiving-chamber that is greater than the length of anordinary mail-package to permit papers and packages to be insertedbodily within said receiving-chamber without bending or doubling, andsaid opening located a distance above the bottom of said receptacle thatis greater than the length of an ordinary mail-package,to permitpackages to drop below said opening, a V-shaped plate having armsconstructed to alternately close said opening and the passage betweenthe said vertical receiving-chamber and said receptacle, and a suitabledoor for removing the mail from the receptacle, substantially as setforth,

4. An improved house or street letter-box comprising a chamber forreceiving deposited mail, located in the lower portion of the boX, avertical receiving-chamber located above said first-named chamber, apassage leading into said vertical receivingchamber, a V- shaped platehaving two arms and pivotally mounted within said box, with one of saidarms located upon the interior of the box and the other arm located uponthe exterior thereof and projecting into said passage, and a suitabledoor for removing mail from the box,

substantially as set forth.

5. An improved house or street letter-box' comprising a lower chamberfor holding deposited mail, a vertical receiving-chamber 1ocated abovesaid first-named chamber, a passage opening into said receiving-chamber,a V-shaped plate having two arms and pivotally mounted upon the interiorof the box, one of said arms constructed to close the pas'- sage betweensaid two chambers and the other arm arranged to close said first-namedpassage when the inner arm of said V-shaped plate is moved downward, theend of the arm which closes the passage between said two chambers beingprovided with serrations, and a door for removing mail from the box,substantially as set forth.

G. The house or street letterbox construoted with a depression in itsback near Intestimony Whereofafxmysignaturein the upper end of same, anda downwardlyv:presence of two Witnesses. extending hook 19,1ooatedvwith-in said depression and arranged to engage a fastening CHARLESSHUMAN. 5 device and secure the upper end of thebox Witnesses:

in position, substantially as shown and de- (1F. KELLER,

scribed. EDWD. E. LONGAN.

